


and now my dreams, they're average size; (but they don't matter much if you ain't with me)

by wearealltalesintheend



Series: come with me, where chains will never bind you [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Established Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Keith (Voltron) is Bad at Feelings, Light Angst, Literary References & Allusions, M/M, and also hugs, but keith needs Time, but lance is patient, i cant help write them in every work i do, shiro tries to give advice, sorry folks, whoever get all the musical references in this series wins a cookie
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-18
Updated: 2017-12-18
Packaged: 2019-02-16 09:13:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13051005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wearealltalesintheend/pseuds/wearealltalesintheend
Summary: "It’s like a maze.He’s trying to get the words out, but he’s always getting lost.There’s no exit sign.And yeah, maybe Keith built those walls himself, but it’s not like he expected to ever have to tear them down.So he does what he can. He kicks and screams and claws at the concrete.He fights because that’s all he knows."or, the one where Lance is patient, Shiro helps without knowing, and Keith learns things he should've known all along.





	and now my dreams, they're average size; (but they don't matter much if you ain't with me)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I should've been studying but instead I'm here because i felt this needed an epilogue of sorts so here it is.
> 
> Enjoy this Mess.

 

_( but I, being poor, have only my dreams; I have spread my dreams under your feet; )_

 

*

 

Keith has never been good at communicating.

 

He’s never really had a place to belong; people he cared enough to stay for.

 

Before, there had been Shiro, but Shiro had been stubborn and friendly and chosen to run along with him rather than make him stay. Shiro had seen the itching beneath his skin and the restlessness inside his bones and _understood._

 

But now.

 

Now he’s in _space,_ and there’s still Shiro, but there are also Hunk and Pidge and Allura and Coran and _Lance._ And Keith cares about them all. Enough for him to want to stick around, to want them to want _him_ around, too.

 

He wants to say _thank you_ and _is this what family feels like._

 

And there’s Lance.

 

Sometimes he looks at him, and he feels his chest ache, hope and affection and longing thrumming in his veins, and he wants to say _I love you I love you I love you_

 

It’s like a prayer he has carved in his bones, along his ribcage and inside his heart.

 

But he can’t find the words to say it aloud. They sound clumsy and not enough, too little to translate the myriad of emotions brewing inside his chest.

 

And sometimes it gets so close to escaping his lips, everything growing too large to contain and he feels as if he’s going to overflow, but it never gets past his walls and then Lance says _I know_ and kisses him softly, and Keith can’t think anything at all.

 

*

 

Once Shiro said home is where your heart is.

 

Keith took these words and branded them in the back of his eyelids, and embraced the hollow space growing inside his chest and made sure never to give too much of his.

 

*

 

It’s like a maze.

 

He’s trying to get the words out, but he’s always getting lost.

 

There’s no exit sign.

 

And yeah, maybe he built those walls himself, but it’s not like he expected to ever have to tear them down.

 

So he does what he can. He kicks and screams and claws at the concrete.

 

He fights because that’s all he knows.

 

*

 

_( above all, send the bees love. every little thing wants to be loved )_

 

*

 

Back in the garrison, Keith saw Shiro falling in love as easily as breathing.

 

Shiro would fall hard and wholeheartedly, and offer his heart away without hesitation.

 

But the thing is, in the end, Keith always had to be there and awkwardly and uselessly help to pick up the pieces.

 

And he always wanted to ask, _why._

 

_If home is where your heart is, then how can you let them break yours?_

  


*

 

Keith thinks he kind of understands, now.

 

*

 

Sometimes he envies Lance a little.

 

Because Lance wears his heart on his sleeves and he says _I love you_ without having to battle with himself.

 

He says it like it’s easy. Like it’s not terrifying or dangerous.

 

Like he’s not afraid Keith is going to break his heart.

 

And Lance deserves better, more than half-formed words stuck in his lungs or unsaid things hanging in the air. Lance deserves better, but Keith is selfish and he is _trying_.

 

He can’t say _I love you_ but he says _I trust you_ and _don’t go_ and _I need you_ and it’s not enough, but it’s a start.

 

He’s _trying._

 

*

 

_( tread softly because you tread on my dreams )_

 

*

 

Shiro never made Keith stop running.

 

He made him slow down a little, breath and _patience yields focus_.

 

It was more like, slow down so he could catch up. He wasn’t running anymore, so Shiro could jog along; a lifeboat Keith could hold on to.

 

Because he’s been running his whole life; from his past, from the hurt and the not knowing and the loneliness and all the broken parts of himself. If he never stops moving, they can’t catch up to him.

 

Even when he joined the garrison, he was still looking for a way out. Joining the Galaxy Garrison meant getting in the cockpit of a ship and _flying._

 

Being high up in the sky had been the most free he’d ever felt. With adrenaline thrumming in his veins and the clouds zooming past him, he could go higher and higher and _higher-_

 

He used to think one day he would fly away from that atmosphere and leave everything behind, fill all the empty spaces with galaxies and constellations and the infinity of this universe.

 

Well, now that he is here, in outer space, in a galaxy he can’t pronounce the name, so many parsecs away from Earth, he finds he wasn’t all wrong.

 

All the cracks and hollows are slowly filling up with the golden feeling of belonging and family and love.

 

It’s not an instant fix, maybe there’s no fixing for him at all, but it helps.

 

And there’s Lance now, too.

 

Lance that somehow found his way under his skin, past warning lights and brick walls. He sees this itch beneath Keith’s skin, this restlessness in his bones, but he sees the wariness and the tiredness and the fear buried even deeper in the marrow too, and says _it’s okay_ , _you can rest now_

 

He sees all the sharp edges and the cracks and the scars, and he _stays._

 

And with his arms wrapped around him and his head on his chest, Keith thinks _this_ he could stay for forever, this is what he’s been running to.

 

*

 

_( and Max, the king of all wild things, was lonely and wanted to be where someone loved him best of all )_

 

*

 

It’s like a maze.

 

He wants to get the words out, but he’s treading uncharted waters and he’s lost.

 

Or maybe it’s like the invisible maze in the training deck; he can try to find his way out alone, but it’s going to hurt and burn and fall.

 

But with a little help, a voice guiding him along, he can find the exit.

 

Every sea has a lighthouse, after all.

 

It takes him some time, but he’s starting to understand he’s not alone in a desert shack anymore.

 

*

 

He asks Shiro, once, _how do you say it?_

 

And his friend smiles, _with your heart._

 

*

 

It happens like everything happens with them, suddenly and unexpectedly and late at night.

 

Maybe it’s the soft glow of the artificial lights or the silence that settles around the Castle.

 

Or it’s just Lance, naked skin and messy hair, smiling soft and fond and familiar, and Keith wants this moment to last a lifetime, wants to stretch this second into infinity, wants to drown in the ocean of his eyes until _now_ becomes _forever._

 

Whatever it is, it clicks into place, and sure, Keith is still scared of the depths of these feelings, but what is an ocean without its tides, and he finds the easiest thing to stand at the edge of this cliff and _fall_.

 

And falling feels so much like flying and nothing at all like fighting; and maybe the landing will break all of his bones, but now that he learned to dream, he hopes he won’t land at all.

 

So he smiles, even when his lungs give out and the hollowness on his chest screeches and claws and bites, “you know, they say home is where your heart is,” he says, “and I think I gave you mine a long time ago.”

 

Lance rolls them over until he’s on top of Keith, sheets pooling at the small of his back, and he’s smiling from above, brighter than a thousand suns and eyes twinkling like moons reflecting off the sea. He doesn’t say _I know_ or _took you long enough_ , but the soft edges around his eyes say _welcome home_ and _I’ve been waiting for you._ Lance says it like a challenge, because it’s Lance and it’s Keith, and that’s their _Rosetta Stone_ , “oh yeah? And you had mine all along.”

 

It’s still scary, giving so much of himself to someone else, but love means vulnerability and trust, too. So Keith doesn’t say _be careful with it_ or _don’t break it, it has enough cracks as it is_ , and chooses to trust Lance with this.

 

“I love you, too” he says, and it’s as easy as breathing, “I love you, I love you-”

 

And Lance cuts him off with a kiss, and suddenly words seem unnecessary when Keith can leave a rosary of hickeys around his collarbone and mouth prayers against his skin.

 

*

 

_( so close that your hand on my chest is my hand, so close that your eyes close as I fall asleep )_

 

*

 

After, when their hair is damp from the shower and they are wrapped around each other, Lance asks, voice thick with sleep, “ _stay_?” and Keith knows the answer before it was even asked, it’s hidden in the rhythm of his heartbeat and in the space between his bones, “of course.”

 

*

 

 _(_ _tale as old as time, true as it can be_ _)_

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> yoo, you made it to the end! If you liked this a lil bit, may I interst you in leaving a kudo or a comment? It's super quick and they always make my day!
> 
> Or come talk to me on [my tumblr](wearealltalesintheend.tumblr.com) about these dorks.


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